A DuPont sign is shown at the company's world headquarters April 12, 2004 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Getty Images)

(Newser)
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Spies aren't just after government secrets these days: An indictment unsealed last month spotlights US efforts to crack down on corporate spying. The government has filed criminal espionage charges against a China-owned firm, saying Pangang Group was after DuPont chemical secrets—specifically, its efficient method for producing the white pigment titanium dioxide, the Wall Street Journal reports. It's the first time such charges have been lodged against a state-owned foreign firm, the Justice Department says, as federal agents crack down on foreign governments' attempts to pilfer US intellectual property.

A couple living in California has been charged with trying to steal and sell secrets about the 50-year-old DuPont technology to Pangang, and the Journal relates how the Liews were busted: After DuPont filed a civil suit against them last year, the FBI got a search warrant for their home. While there, it found a safe deposit box key—and an agent who speaks Mandarin overheard Walter Liew tell his wife in Chinese to say that she didn't know about the bank ... which is where she drove right after the agents left. Prosecutors say the couple's box housed documents related to the plot. China says accusations that the state-owned company asked businessmen to obtain DuPont trade secrets are "groundless." But "what we've learned since the end of the Cold War is that when it comes to the economy, our adversaries and even our allies will spy on us when it's in their economic interest," says an FBI director.

Many of the Legal Immigrants don't have high ethical standards because of a lack of Religious upbringing or the fact that they don't understand what America is really about other than enjoying more freedoms and prosperity than where they came from. Then you have the liberal boneheads commenting on whatever belongs to a Corporation is bad so its O.K. to let China a Communist Regime have it is the most moronic thing anyone should have to read on a frikin blog........................

SPHeroid

Mar 9, 2012 8:55 PM CST

"... the 50-year-old DuPont technology"..... If DuPont patented the process, the time is up and it is now public domain..... If DuPont didn't patent the process in hopes to retain exclusivity, they may find themselves in the awkward position of paying royalties to whom ever does file for the patent..... Of course DuPont may be sitting on a new process,TiO2 has been used as a semi-conductor.....

Colonel_Sanders

Mar 9, 2012 2:29 PM CST

This is an immigration related offense. In other words, we are allowing far too many of the wrong people into our country.